Nature provides many resources that can be used to reduce dependence on coal, oil and gas for powering our homes, offices, factories, and modes of transportation. Solar and wind power have been the most used natural resources to supplement coal, oil, and gas for powering homes, offices, and factories. Prototypes for gathering energy from waves and tides have also been constructed and are being evaluated as a supplement to coal, oil, and gas as well. Solar powered photovoltaic (PV) cells have shown the most promise when it comes to providing power for transportation and seemingly are a good fit with current electric car technology.
Attempts have been made to develop experimental, lightweight, single rider, PV powered autos for various contests. Recently, the Tokai Challenger, from Tokai University in Japan, has been a top performer at the World Solar Challenge (T. Murphy, “Do the Math. A Solar-Powered Car?” http://physics.ucsd.edu/do-the-math/2011/11/a-solar-powered-car/). It uses a 1.8 kilowatt (kW) PV array. To utilize this technology for a four passenger car travelling at freeway speeds of 67 miles per hour (mph) requires a total of approximately 9 kW. There is not enough surface area on a typical four passenger car (facing the sun) to provide 9 kW. At best, a PV array could be most efficiently used to charge an onboard battery from a stationary charging station when the car is not in use.
There is another natural resource that has not been mined as an alternate source of energy: the earth's magnetic field. With average field strength approximately 0.5 Tesla (T) around the world, it is easy to see why this resource has been overlooked. If a system to mine the earth's magnetic field is developed to power an electrical car using moving electrical wire for example, even the most efficient aluminum wire requires an impractical length to generate a small amount of power at a usable voltage. As good as the electrical properties of aluminum wire are, they are not sufficient for this application. It is clear that a disruptive technology is needed to mine the earth's magnetic field for powering cars, trucks and other vehicles.
Such a disruptive technology, graphene, (The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, “Scientific Background on the Nobel Prize in Physics 2010,” Kungl. Vetenskaps-Akademien, 5 Oct. 2010) is now at an early stage of development. Graphene has excellent electrical properties in the form of high conductivity and low resistivity, is extremely strong and durable, and is relatively inexpensive. It is now being produced in sheets (http://www.graphene-info.com/sony-developed-new-r2r-method-make-graphene-produced-100-meter-long-sheet) large enough to be used for EcoCharge. In addition, MIT is setting up an industrial scale graphene printing press in its graphene lab (http://idealab.talkingpointsmemo.com/2011/09/mit-setting-up-industrial-scale-graphene-printing-press.php). The unique feature of graphene for mining the earth's magnetic field is its ability to conduct electricity in low resistivity, two-dimensional sheets. In effect, graphene is a two-dimensional “wire” that will generate current proportional to its resistivity, area, and orientation and motion with respect to the earth's magnetic field. As will be shown below, these properties provide a significant multiplier to earth's weak magnetic field yielding a feasible source of ecologically clean electric power for many types of electric vehicles.